Fishing Reel Bearings

What Makes Your Reel Go Round!

Fishing reel bearings are located throughout both spinning and
baitcasting reels wherever there are components that must spin/rotate.
The spool, pinion gear and under drag washers,
They serve to facilitate the rotation of gears, knobs, spools and even
level wind devices. Without them, the term "smooth" would not be in our
fishing reel vocabulary. Fishing would be
more of an ordeal than the enjoyable experience it is today.

We've all heard a million times that "the more ball bearings a
reel has the better the reel". Is this always true? What about ceramic
bearings or these ceramic hybrid bearings we hear about? What do they
offer in improved reel function and durability? Read on and let's see if
we can answer these questions.

Components Of Fishing Reel Bearings

The small ball bearings in fishing reels serve the same
purpose in baitcasting or spinning reels as they do in any other
mechanical device - reduction of friction between moving parts.
So they fall into the classification of "anti-friction bearings".
Without them life would be far more difficult. Any time two objects come
in contact while moving across one another friction is generated and
the resulting force is resistance against the motion. Motion is slowed
or stopped all together.

You will find that most reel companies place ball bearings at
several locations within a reel. Where there are rotating parts in
contact with one another you can find ball bearings. The number can
range from three to as many as eleven. There are spool, clutch, knob and
frame bearings for example.

Most reels today, particularly high grade reels whether spinning or
baitcasting, use precision, stainless steel "radial ball bearings".
However, more and more solid and ceramic coated bearings are making the
scene. The radial ball bearing units we're talking about consist of an
inner and outer ring within which is a cage, made of plastic or steel,
containing a number of precision balls. The cage functions to keep the
balls separated. These fishing reel bearing units are usually of
deep-groove construction which accommodates both radial and axial loads
common with fishing reels.

The diagrams above and to the right show the individual parts of a ball
bearing unit and the "assembled" unit. The unit itself is also referred
to as a ball bearing or Conrad bearing. Why? It's really not important
but if you must know he is the guy that invented it. The balls are
placed inside the tracks of the outer and inner races and evenly
distributed. The cage is then positioned over the balls to keep them
separated and evenly distributed.

The four parts of fishing reel bearings are:

Races are simply rings of stainless steel that have been
formed, hardened and finished by grinding to a very smooth almost mirror
like surface. A unit includes both an inner and outer race.

Cages look similar to a chain, at least to me. They are
either plastic or stainless steel. They consist of linked "collars"
within which the individual balls are located. In these open end
collars they are kept separated and equidistant from one another.

Balls
Stainless Balls are formed from a length of wire by cold heading.
This is a process that uses pressure rather than heat. After this they
are machined smooth by several sequential
steps and heat treated to attain necessary hardness.Ceramic material in fishing reel bearings is usually limited to the
rolling elements, the balls. Ceramic balls placed within stainless steel
races and cages are "hybrid ceramic bearings".

Shields come to play in fishing reel ball bearings when there
is a need/desire to keep lubricates in the bearing and dirt out. These
can be either permanent or removable. The
latter makes cleaning or adding new lubrication a little more difficult.

What Constitutes Quality Fishing Reel Bearings?

The "rolling action" of fishing reel bearings or ball bearings in any
other device, which is what defines their quality, depends on the
roundness, precision, and hardness of its components. High quality ball
bearings like those found in upper end reels have extremely close
tolerances as defined by ABEC standards. This translates into very
little play and almost friction free rotation. Less expensive, low end
reels may have bearings made of chrome plated steel, chrome steel or
other inferior materials. The function and durability of these bearings
falls far short of "precision" stainless steel or ceramic ball bearings.

Stainless Steel Or Ceramic?

Fishing Reel Bearings- Stainless Steel

Dominant ball bearing found in today's fishing reels.

Relatively inexpensive to produce.

Surface wear is not uncommon even when lubricated.

Shorter life span than ceramic balls.

Required heat treatment to strengthen the steel unfortunately
weakens their resistance to corrosion. Especially important in saltwater
environments.

Fishing Reel Bearings - Ceramic

Expensive to produce.

Can be solid or a coating on stainless steel balls.

If solid ceramic they're lighter than stainless steel by as much as
60%. This means lighter weight reels since the balls make up 50-75% of a
bearings weight.

The wear rate of ceramic ball bearings is significantly less than
stainless steel especially when lubricated. This feature contributes to a
life expectancy as much as five times that of stainless.

More corrosion resistant than stainless steel.

Generate less destructive heat.

An extremely smooth surface and uniform size is attainable which contributes to much less friction and slip.

Lower levels of vibration and higher speeds than with stainless.

In fishing reels, ceramic ball bearings are usually "ceramic hybrid
bearings", which means they consist of ceramic balls enclosed in a
stainless steel (sometimes plastic) cage enclosed
in an inner and outer stainless steel race unit.

With Ball Bearings You Get What You Pay For

If you never clean or repair your reels. If you don't fine
tune them by replacing the stock bearings that come in them with
"upgraded bearings", you could probably skip this section of
the page. You'll find more about bearing quality and "upgrading
bearings" in future articles dealing with reel maintenance (yet to be
constructed) on this site.

ABEC Rating What Is It?

As with so many other industries, that part of the ball bearing
industry that concentrates on producing "precision ball bearings seeks
to adhere to different levels of domestic and internationally
established quality ratings. With U.S domestic ball bearings it's the
Annular Bearing Engineers Committee, or shorter and easier to say, the
ABEC. This committee is part of
the larger American Bearing Manufacturers Association or ABMA. The
standards it sets closely mimic those of the ISO, the International
Standards Organization and ANSI, and the American
National Standards Institute.

If you don't what these organizations are don't waste a minute
learning about them. Just know that they exist, at least theoretically,
too set standards for industry and business (world wide) that supposedly
insure better manufacturing practices and better finished products. The
degree of success or failure of these "independent" standard setting
entities in
accomplishing this is debatable, in my humble opinion, and could be the
subject for another entire web site.

Nevertheless, in this article on fishing reel bearings, at least
relative to ball bearing tolerances, we're proceeding under the
assumption the ABEC 1 (lowest) through ABEC 9 (highest) standards, which
really only deal with "tolerances", are reliable indicators of
"dimensional precision".

The higher the rating, the closer he ball is to dimensional
perfection. Not a bad thing as this contributes to a more true rotation
and higher speed. Note, however, that this is but one
ingredient in the quality ball bearing recipe. Surface finish, race
curvature, lubrication, material, corrosion resistance and number of
balls also affect quality.

More Than You Want To Know?

If you're into just fishing and not maintenance and repair,
just focus on the number of ball bearings in a reel and the material
from which they are made. A manufacturer will include
this in its reel description. That's all you need to know. Keep in
mind, the number of fishing reel bearings does contribute to whether a
reel performs poorly or if it functions at a high level.

The table below will give you a sampling of the ball bearing
differences between some popular reel manufacturers. Where able to do
so, I've tried to identify what the specific material is
when trademark names are used to describe bearings. I've also included
2010 prices so you might get a feel for the relationship between reel
price and the number and type of ball
bearings in reels.

HPCR Bearings (High Performance Corrosion Resistant) are
Abu Garcia's rust resistant, shielded, stainless steel ball bearings.
Advertised as a steel that is not "specially treated" after manufacture
but is instead a specific type of rust resistant steel. Allegedly, this
steel handles more stress, runs better dry and at higher RPM, and if
ever contaminated, will continue to run better than a standard bearing.

A-RB Bearings

are stainless steel, no shield (open), ball bearings that have been through the A-RB treatment process
which makes them, allegedly, at least 10 times more corrosion resistant
than standard stainless steel ball bearings. They are also advertised
as being able to rotate at a higher speed due to the open design and low
viscosity lubrication.